Goya
by whenthemarshmallowmettheslayer
Summary: "I am not a ghoul." Again the words Koutarou voices aren't loud despite how he wants to scream them. (Scream at the ghoul for all the children - they were all his children - who no longer could.)


A/N: If you want more stories or quicker updates check (if this is a multi chapter fic) out youngjusticewriter on ao3. To be honest I'm tempted to further write on this prompt. A few references to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Madness Returns but I have the same icon Young Justice/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland icon on tumblr. That and Donato does tell Amon to follow Alice in the manga so I don't feel that terrible about it. The meaning behind the title: (Francisco) Goya is the artist who made Saturn Devouring His Son.

Prompt: Prompt: 22 (wendigo) Amon.

* * *

He's waiting when Koutarou arrives, it's like he's known this day would come (or maybe because Donato has been waiting for this day, for his son, to come); it's because of all the exercise he does that Koutarou isn't out of breath (it has to be).

"What did you do?" It's not yelled in anger - so loud, strong, and right. No, Koutarou asks in a level voice with eyes that could murder if glares could do such a thing and a mouth that still tastes of copper no matter how many times he's brushed his teeth.

(Koutarou had even gone as far to shove a bar of soap in his mouth like Donato had done all those damn years ago to punish him after Koutarou had ate all the donuts just as Donato would eat all the children but him - always him.

Maybe Koutarou didn't need to follow Alice to find the entrance to Wonderland. Maybe Koutarou needed to find Eyepatch to get out of Wonderland.)

Donato smiles down at him, old eyes bright in amusement; to anyone else he would have been the picture of a proud father. Not to Koutarou. Never to Koutarou. Not after what's he's done - Koutarou will never forgive either of them.

To Koutarou what he sees before him bring up two words to his mind: bread and circus. That's what this - Cochlea and Koutarou - are to this ghoul. (What is Koutarou to the other ghoul?)

"It might be easier to find your answer by knowing what you aren't," Donato suggests. Suggestions, whispers, seduces with soft words so bad ideas sound good just like a snake in a garden once had.

"I am not a ghoul." Again the words Koutarou voices aren't loud despite how he wants to scream them. (Scream at the ghoul for all the children - they were all his children - who no longer could.) They, his words, are slow and emotional. It feels as though he's a boy again. A boy who confessing his transgressions to his father.

"Yes, you are not." No more, no less.

His jaw clenches so tight before he speaks. (Tight enough for his teeth to dig painfully into Eyepatch in return for the bite he took from Koutarou. No more, no less.)

"I'm not human am I?" It's a question, not a confession, and that will not do. (It's rude to ask questions you already know the answer to.) Donato does not answer so Koutarou gets up and tries again because that is what you do when you fall, when you are afraid. (Closing your eyes and pretending will not make something real. Koutarou painfully learnt that lesson by himself when he was a kid.)

"I am not human." Fact (acceptance) instead of a question (denial) and Donato smiles like the Cheshire Cat would. (We're all mad here; we're all not humans here.)

"You were once."

"What am I then?" Now his words are yelled with an ugly snarl. They're powerful, heated, and strong even though Koutarou himself is not in this moment.

Donato merely smiles down on him just like he had years ago that night. "What I made you. What you made of yourself. The sins of the father are the sins of the son."

"No, they are not. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son."

Donato leaned forward. All but touching the glass that separated them that fogged from Donato's breath. "They are when the son chooses to follow the same path as the father first laid down for his son."

In this moment Koutarou could see how Donato looked like be a proud parent instead of knowing that he would like it to other people. But there's too many bodies of children (they all were his children not just Koutarou) piled at Donato's feet for him to know love.


End file.
